I have seen the Ham vs. CB fighting for as long as I have been into radio. It does NOT involve all parties though. The truth is, that I have seen far more Hams who are more than willing to educate and teach a CBer how to legally improve and their transmit and reception(Sadly I have seen quite a few Hams, modify a CBers radio and linear amps too). Some CBers are jealous of Hams, but truthfully I doubt many CBers even know what a Ham is or much about it.

Here is my radio story. I first got into radio as a CBer as a kid on my Uncles radio. When I was 15, I bought my first radio. A Ham taught me the important things like how important an antenna was and using quality coax and connectors ECT. I also wanted the most LOCAL range I could get and could care less for "Shooting Skip" and other non-sense (At least on CB it is non-sense as if you want that, you should become a Ham). It was fun while I was young, but the band seemed to get worse and worse in regards to manners. The cussing, threats and just plain lude topics left little to be desired. When my first child was born I gave up on the CB band. If I am traveling cross country, I occasionally bring a CB with mag mount antenna in case I run into traffic congestion in hopes of finding out what is going on, but I NEVER keep a CB turned on anymore. The language is simply too foul. I became a firefighter after high school and fell in love with the VHF high band. A few years later along came MURS!!! A license-free "CB" VHF band. I was quite happy and immediately got into that band and have been there ever since. The 2-watt limit is a slight draw-back as I was used to 50-watts simplex on the fire department. Also, there is no repeater use on MURS another drawback from commercial VHF. MURS is much better than one might think though. With a GOOD antenna and Coax set-up I can go every bit as far as I ever did with "LEGAL" AM CB (Single Sideband is a different beast). I gained quite a bit of knowledge in LMR/PS radio working with yet another ham that was a tech for several county fire departments radios. I later started to do radio work in LMR (just basics like programming and antenna tuning) and by default volunteers would ask me to look at their CBs too. It amazes me how much radio ignorance is out there in CB, LMR and PS. I have seen coax cables that have been nearly severed from being slammed in car doors or trunks; I have seen "twist-on" solderless connectors, untuned or un-grounded antennas and all sorts of awful things. This is something many CBers and even volunteer firefighters do not understand. Your antenna and coax is most important. Right before I abandoned the CB I had a fellow firefighter I tried to reach on the CB I was maybe 15 miles away (hilly forested terrain). He heard me crystal clear. I was using an unmodified Cobra 19 and K-30 magnetic mount antenna. I had properly tuned it and ensured my coax was protected from nicks and kinks. He finally was able to talk back to me with his "Peaked and Tweaked" Cobra 29 bumper affixed antenna, but only after turning on his 300 watt "Kicker". Needless to say, I could hear him, but he sounded awful. After talking with him for a while I convinced him that power was not the way to go and that proper design was. I told him I would fix his set-up if he took out the linear amp. We replaced the Cobra 29, with a stock Cobra 25. We replaced his coax that had been nicked multiple times and had frayed braids all over the place. I used a soldered PL-259 connector instead of the twist on type he had. Finally we replaced the old whip antenna he had with a new one (Someone had tried to tune it by cutting the top off rather than from the bottom) and grounded it to the chassis. To my knowledge he has not run a linear since. I feel good in that I took one less lousy amp off the band. I guess my point in all this is that we should try to educate rather than degrade or belittle. Perhaps I am a neutral party as I am neither a CBer nor a Ham, but a "MURSer"? For the most part I do not have problems. MURS does have a few problems though. Occasionally a business will run on MURS frequencies without a ctcss and if you talk they will come on and say "Get off OUR channel". I have just as much right to the frequency as they do as long as I do not try to "walk" on their radio traffic as a bad CBer might do. I have not yet argued with them over it though. This is rarely a problem for me and my family as we live 30 miles from the nearest town. My frequency of choice is 154.6, I have not yet put in a ctcss as I would welcome traffic so long as it is civil. I use primarily those old Radio Shack 19-1210s I purchased on close-out years ago for my mobile and base operations. I have had to adjust a few of them though. They are supposed to be 5-watt on Business/Public Safety and automatically adjust to 1 watt on MURS, but they don’t always do this. I have seen some of them run .5 to 6 Watts on MURS channels. So you need to check and possibly align the blue pot to 2 watts. Motorola Spirit radios are suitable for handhelds. (Part 90 is ok as long as it was pre-2002, Dakota Alert is the only Part 95 currently on the market that I know of. Columbia used to make some Part 95 MURS until a few years ago. Perhaps Ebay has some of these.) I am looking more and more into getting my Ham license as the 2-meter looks like lots of fun. The thing is though that I like radio for family communications (My family mostly lives all within 6 miles of me) and we would all need to get licensed for Ham. GMRS is not a viable option out here as MURS is equal to greater in performance in this area (hilly, heavily forested) and even the repeaters are pretty lousy unless you pay big bucks for tower rental. Ok, I have rambled and drifted quite a bit from topic, but I guess my point is we should try to educate and be civil to each other. Some guys are just jerks and you will not be able to help them, but many more are more than willing to learn if you approach them in a kind manner.

I was a CBer for years before i became a ham. i wouldnt give you all the tea in China to go back to CB. I had fun when i was on CB but today its all about power and export radios and it is no longer as fun as it used to be. When i was in high school a bunch of us all got CB radios (this was before cell phones) in our cars and we would play CB tag and some of us would stay up late at night on a Friday night just chatting away. I can remember many anight staying up to 3 am talking to my friends that had fixed stations.

I thought about this, and last night, while having coffee at my favorite diner, I started a conversation with some 10 to 16 yr old, Boys. I asked "Are any of you guys interested in 2 way Radio?< cause field day is coming soon> And I noticed the common ground starting point is< as all ways> CB. But none of them had developed a dislike for Hamms as yet. I tell them CB used to be part of Hamm radio, and gradually tell them about the other things Hamm folks do. And tell them ,and their dads-n-uncles about the up coming field day, where to go and when, and Our ARES group Email address. Well we had fun talking, and after they left I got to talk about ARES with the Volunteer Fire Dept guys who had been listening.The conclusion I came to is that Hate is a learned behavior,based in fear of what we don't know.BTW my first radio was a CB, four channel,crystal controlled,and for years I thot it was made by Amphenol? Since that was the only name on it , on the Octal power&speaker plug in the Chassis. Hey I was like 8 or so. But when I loose coupled it to a barbed wire fence with an insulated wire wrapped round n round, I could talk to folks a-ways off.

Well going on many vacations over the years I will have a cb in the car over a dualband radio anyday . Took the dualbander once and it was a waste of time. The truckers out there for the most part are really helpful and pleasant to talk to. Last night while listening on hf on 14.223.00 usb there was a verbal war and child like behavior for a good 45 min. I am an authority on child like behavior so do not question me. For the most part I support 11 meter because it is radio and have friends on this band and it does serve a purpose. And is some hollywood movies the cb radio saved the world. Everybody have a great day and hopefully I have given you the correct point of view mine. Take care 73 kc8ktn/chuck

I may have missed it in this long thread, but I don't think so.There is one ongoing irritation that continues to this day about ham amplifiers.At one point the FCC/US government mandated that new amps could not be factory produced to work on 10M. It was an attempt to keep outlaw CBers from getting on with high power so easily. The FCC didn't care that it impacted the hams who could use such an amp legally. Some amps like the Heath SB221 could not even have the 10M band added without major surgery. It was a stupid requirement since driving a normal ham KW amp would only give you about 10db gain which would move the 4 watt CB rig up to 40 watts --- for a whole lot of money. Of course higher powered modified ham rigs used on CB were another story. That wasn't the hams fault either. Eventually that insanity was repealed. However, you still have some companies requiring newly manufactured ham amps to be "modified" or to purchase options to use them on 10 and 12 M. The whole thing was stupid then and remains so now. 73, K7UA

There is a very simple answer to this question. CB operators are challenged and intimidated by the technical complexity of amateur radio. Ham operators are typically very short with CB'ers after listening to a few minutes of total ignorance and determine that continuing the conversation is like trying to teach a pig to sing. CB'ers do not want rules or restrictions placed on them and quickly detrmine that all hams are pure a**holes. Unfortunately some of these poor souls have been challenged by the cryptic appearance of ham radio and made the plunge into amateur radio and brought their ignorant, filthy mouths and poor practices with them. The rest of the CB community is quite proud of splattering the entire spectrum with butchered amplifiers, having contests with one-another keying up their rig and playing music, or just showing the world that they have mastered stupidity with their never ending filthy language that would make a common street-walker blush. The topic should be, "Who really cares what CB'ers think of hams?"

KJ4CJV Said,"Better be thankful they still have CB'ers because I have not seen 1 single HAM call for help in a Highway accident or pile up!! Whats the chances that a CB'er will be able to call for help? So just be thankful that their on the road and they have a CB!! You never know you might need them one day!"

I personally used 2M mobile rig to call in quite a number of wrecks, storm damage etc....Don't make statements that are full of holes.

Personally I have a legal cb in my shack because one can never have too many ways to communicate however the cb culture in my area is nothing but ignorant rednecks, my brother in law being one of them, I actually had to sic the FCC on him to get him to stop interfering with my ham operations, he was using a dave made splatterbox which also caused several neighbors banging on my door because my tower is what they saw....all in all cb would be better served if the FCC would clean it up swiftly and with malice!

There is a very simple answer to this question. CB operators are challenged and intimidated by the technical complexity of amateur radio. Ham operators are typically very short with CB'ers after listening to a few minutes of total ignorance and determine that continuing the conversation is like trying to teach a pig to sing. CB'ers do not want rules or restrictions placed on them and quickly detrmine that all hams are pure a**holes. Unfortunately some of these poor souls have been challenged by the cryptic appearance of ham radio and made the plunge into amateur radio and brought their ignorant, filthy mouths and poor practices with them. The rest of the CB community is quite proud of splattering the entire spectrum with butchered amplifiers, having contests with one-another keying up their rig and playing music, or just showing the world that they have mastered stupidity with their never ending filthy language that would make a common street-walker blush. The topic should be, "Who really cares what CB'ers think of hams?"

I have listened to HAM repeaters and GMRS repeaters and ham has there fair share of people who sware, key down and play music, disregard rules and regulations, Or not care when a repeater operator says he will change the ctcss tone on his repeater to keep a person off and he then replies i will modify my ham radio then to get on here, This on a GMRS repeater. or 147.435 out here, Listen to that repeater. Sounds like the standard garbage you would find on your local CB station. The last two weeks I have heard more civil talks on CB.

I think the feud is the average ham has taken his time to earn his ticket and get away from the trash just to have someone who finds out hey i can run 1500 watts from the CB community and brings there hash/trash with them. CB'ers, I dont think I have ever talked to one who downplayed a Ham operator.

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